About
JULIE KOWITZ Margolies is an experienced mediator specializing in employment, civil rights, personal injury, and commercial disputes. With more than 20 years of experience in litigation, policy negotiation, and conflict resolution, she skillfully combines her legal acumen with insight and empathy to ensure that each stakeholder’s underlying interests are surfaced and understood. By facilitating a structured and focused process, Ms. Kowitz Margolies enables parties to gain clarity on what is most important to them, so they can fully explore next steps, develop a mutually beneficial resolution of conflict, and forge a positive path forward. She is known for her careful legal analysis, quickly establishing rapport with parties and counsel, and bringing tenacity and creativity to resolving disputes.
Prior to becoming a full-time neutral, Ms. Kowitz Margolies served as the Director of the Women in Prison Project of the Correctional Association of New York, developing comprehensive advocacy campaigns in which she drafted proposed legislation, negotiated with legislators and executive agencies, and coordinated a statewide alliance of 125 organizations. Prior to leading the Women in Prison Project, Ms. Kowitz Margolies was a litigator at Beldock Levine & Hoffman, LLP, representing clients in employment discrimination, First Amendment, and commercial matters in state and federal courts. From 1997 to 1998, she was a Fellowship Attorney at the Center for Reproductive Law & Policy. From 1996 to 1997, Ms. Kowitz Margolies was a law clerk to the Honorable Shira A. Scheindlin, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. She graduated second in her class and summa cum laude from Brooklyn Law School in 1996. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Columbia University.
Ms. Kowitz Margolies currently serves as a neutral on the mediation panels of the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and has served as a volunteer mediator at the New York Peace Institute. She has also served as a coach for Basic Mediation Training at the New York City Bar Association. From 2000 to 2008, she was an Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. From 2003 to 2018, she was a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Civil Liberties Union, serving as Vice President from 2010 to 2014.
Representative Matters
Mediation of workplace disputes, including wrongful termination, severance benefits, failure to promote, harassment, discrimination (race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, ethnic origin, pregnancy), co-worker clashes, hostile work environment and retaliation, across a wide range of industries, including:
- Claims of discrimination based on age, ethnicity and race brought against an international boutique hotel group.
- Claims of race and gender discrimination brought by employees against a high-end, high-profile restaurant group.
- Claims of age and national origin discrimination against a global market research firm.
- Disability discrimination claim against a global document management and outsourcing service company.
- Claims of gender, sexual orientation and race discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation brought against a franchisee of national restaurant chain.
- Claims of wage discrimination and failure to promote based on race brought by multiple employees against a large laundry equipment service corporation.
- Age discrimination claim by teacher against an international independent school.
State and federal claims for false arrest, false imprisonment, unlawful search and seizure, excessive force, assault, and malicious prosecution, including matters involving multiple plaintiffs.
Personal injury claims, including claims arising from on-the-job work-related injuries and motor vehicle crashes.
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